The Weeds in My Garden

This time of year I do a lot of weeding. (My husband is probably wishing I did more.) This is the time when those little weedy troublemakers establish themselves in our flower beds and get to work on becoming big weedy troublemakers.

I like to say that peace in this life among men does not come from the absence of sin. (Oh, were that possible!) It comes from the proper handling of sin. Of course, I am not talking about our right standing before God, as only Christ can do away with our sins in that way. I am talking about how we deal, with the help of the Spirit, with the sin that day to day crops up in the lives of even the redeemed, as we struggle against the corruption that remains in our flesh. The proper handling of that sin is in many ways analogous to the proper handling of weeds.

You must mind the roots. A careless gardener might tear away the green part of the weeds, leaving the roots beneath the soil, out of view. The garden may look better--at least for a little while--but the root is there ready to flourish again on another day.

If you don't weed often, the work is much harder. A tender dandelion is easy enough to pull from the soil. After only a week or so, however, its tap root has grown down several inches and extracting it becomes very difficult. Unattended sins become habits, our consciences become numb to them and extracting them from our lives becomes more difficult in time.

Weeds can crowd out the good things. Weeds rob resources, like nutrients and water from the good plants. They block out the sun.

Weeds beget weeds. Allow one dandelion to go to seed, and you now have hundreds of them. We have this wild feverfew growing in our flower beds. The roots spread out and one little plant soon has little children popping up around it in every direction. There is an old saying about the tangled web of deception that results from one little lie. So it is. Sins draw us in to other sins and sin begets sins. Bitterness begets hatred. Covetousness begets theft. Lust begets adultery. Then we lie to cover our sins. Then we lie to cover our lies.

Saying weeds aren't weeds doesn't make it so. If you read my previous post about how we don't go for the perfect weed-free lawns at our house, you know how I love the violets that flourish in our lawn and at the edge of our woods. I once decided that I loved the violets so much that when they found their way into the flower beds, I would let them stay there, too. Big mistake. It didn't take long for them to begin crowding out the other plants. Calling sins something other than sin doesn't erase their power to overwhelm and corrupt us.

Proverbs 28:13 Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. 

Psalm 139: 23, 24 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Matthew 5:21-26

"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.'

But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.

So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,

leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.

Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny."

Isaiah 5: 20, 21

 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! 

Numbers 32:23 But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out. 

Numbers 5:5-7 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the people of Israel, When a man or woman commits any of the sins that people commit by breaking faith with the LORD, and that person realizes his guilt, he shall confess his sin that he has committed. And he shall make full restitution for his wrong, adding a fifth to it and giving it to him to whom he did the wrong."

These quotations are from the English Standard Version of the Bible.

Comments

[Jared]

Wonderful post!

I hope you don't mind, but I've highlighted it here:
http://shizukagarden.blogspot.com/2005/05/weeds.html

I don't have a trackback feature, or else I would have used that, but I just wanted to let you know you've been excerpted and linked to.